Earn It! Keep It! Save It!

About Financial Stability

Nearly every EKS coalition member providing tax preparation services offers an array of asset building or income support services such as access to low or no cost banking products, financial education, public benefits, matched savings accounts (IDAs), one on one financial coaching and more.

On a regional scale, United Way of the Bay Area is in the beginning stages of developing its SparkPoint Initiative, of which Earn It! Keep It! Save It! is a vital piece.

History and Evolution of the SparkPoint Initiative
Since 1922, United Way of the Bay Area (UWBA) has been a leader in building collaborations and partnerships to further financial stability in the San Francisco Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Solano.  In 2002, we created Earn It!  Keep It!  Save It!, a free tax preparation assistance program which has developed county-based coalitions of over 200 nonprofit, banking, and government partners; over the last seven years, it has turned a million dollar investment into a $154 million return for local families and the community. We adopted the Self-Sufficiency Standard in 2003 and urged the system to adopt the Standard in 2005 as it launched the national Financial Stability Partnership™.  Over the past year, we have launched both the Bank on Oakland Initiative and our first SparkPoint Center. 

For decades we have partnered and convened across sectors, contributed to policy, and managed programs.  Through the Bay Area Community Fund, we have identified and invested – both financially and through technical assistance - in more than 250 high-performing local programs that create, promote, or protect financial stability by supporting children and youth, working families, and communities. The relationships, experience, and synergy stemming from this work have created the fertile ground on which we are building the SparkPoint Initiative. 

Elements of the SparkPoint Initiative

SparkPoint Centers As part of UWBA’s Community Impact Agenda for 2009-2013, we will launch one SparkPoint Center –which will represent a hybrid of current integrated service delivery models - in each of the seven counties we serve.  SparkPoint Oakland launched in March 2009, and centers in other counties are currently in development.

Each SparkPoint Center is being developed organically according to local community needs and assets but partners at each share a commitment to seven central concepts: (1) to offer an array of services in three areas – credit, income, and assets; (2) to seamlessly integrate service delivery, appropriately “bundled” and sequenced; (3) to provide financial counseling for all clients and motivate and support them with culturally competent staff; (4) to promote and provide access to public and private benefits and mainstream financial services; (5) to commit to continued engagement with clients over two-three years; (6) to evaluate, learn from and share data, supported by a user-friendly IT system that demonstrates results; and (7) to promote SparkPoint through the power of a common brand and marketing.  The partners have also committed to common goals and developing new indicators to measure the extent to which we reach those goals. 

Programs In addition to Earn It!  Keep It!  Save It!, Bank on Oakland serves working families by allowing those dependent on high-cost check-cashers to open a starter bank account with federally insured financial institutions in Oakland.  It aims to increase the supply of starter accounts for Californians without bank accounts, to educate Californians about the benefits of account ownership, and to build money management skills through financial education classes.

Partnerships UWBA has partnered with the Bay Area Dream Fund to establish a regional pool of matching funds for Individual Development Accounts, with the San Francisco Labor Council on workforce advancement, sector training, and support, and has engaged with partners at both the local and state level to monitor, influence, and inform others about the shifting benefits access and enrollment landscape.  In addition, we have continued to promote and provide the self-sufficiency calculator.

Click here to visit the SparkPoint website!